Main Menu

Search form

Why Repeal ObamaCare?

Fifty-seven percent of likely voters, according to the Sept.27 release of a nationwide poll, now favor repeal of the nationalized health care system, known with distaste as ObamaCare. But why favor repeal, when so many provisions to help Americans just took effect?

On the six-month anniversary of ObamaCare becoming law, the Department of Health and Human Services called it “A New Patient’s Bill of Rights.” The law forbids denying coverage to children with any health condition; young adults can stay on their parent’s insurance policies until they’re age 26; and preventative services, such as flu shots and mammograms, colonoscopies, and pre-natal care must be provided without having to make co-payments. What a deal! It should be enough to make citizens glow with appreciation.

But, no. Rasmussen Reports, which just released its latest poll of voter reaction to the law, found that not only do 57 percent of voters want ObamaCare repealed, but also 46 percent “strongly favor repeal.” Since enactment of the much-debated ObamaCare law during its multi-month journey through Congress, a majority of voters “have consistently favored repeal of the new law, with support ranging from a low of 53 percent to a high of 63 percent,” according to the poll. Rasmussen Reports said that 84 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of voters not affiliated with either major political party “strongly favor repeal of the law.” Some 58 percent of Democrats oppose the repeal of the health law, the pollsters found.

The White House, in what it described boastfully as a Fact Sheet, on Sept. 22 stating the “Affordable Care Act will put into place comprehensive health insurance reforms that will hold insurance companies accountable, lower health care costs, guarantee more health care choices, and enhance the quality of health care for all Americans.” The “Fact Sheet” also disclosed Administration plans to “release state-by-state reports detailing the impact of the Affordable Care Act and a revamped website...which includes information on the impact of the law and [sob] stories from Americans in all 50 states who are benefiting from the Affordable Care Law. Some of the participants whose stories are highlighted on the new website will include:

“Dawn Josephson from Jacksonville, FL, who can now live with the security of knowing that her new insurance policy can’t exclude coverage for young (sic) her son who recently had eye surgery.

“Gail M. O’Brien from Keen, NH, who was previously uninsured and diagnosed with high grade non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Gail is enrolled in the new Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan that will pay for her treatments and is responding very well.

“Before reform,” said the White House spin sheet “tens of thousands of families had been denied insurance each year for their children because of an illness or condition....Up to 72,000 uninsured children are expected to gain coverage by banning insurers from refusing them coverage due to a pre-existing condition. Coverage for up to 90,000 children will no longer exclude benefits because of a pre-existing condition.”

“Starting September 23, insurance companies are banned from cutting off your coverage due to an unintentional mistake on your application. Approximately 10,700 people’s coverage, whose coverage is dropped each year because they made a mistake in filling out their application “will be protected under the new law.” (thereby rewarding carelessness). People with “serious or chronic diseases who were forced to limit or go without treatment because of an insurer’s lifetime limit on their coverage, will now have no lifetime limit on coverage.

Starting September 23, young adults to age 26 can stay on their parents’ insurance (if they can’t get off their duffs and get a job with health coverage). The Fact Sheet failed to note that some of the ObamaCare provisions don’t kick in until 2014 or don’t fully provide benefits until 2017.

Among the many reasons Americans see as a need to repeal the health care law is that it “threatens to transform the U. S. health care system from its roots in free enterprise and personal choice. Critics of ObamaCare, representing the majority of Americans, are convinced the system created is financially unsustainable. As The Foundry, the Heritage Foundation blog said Sept. 13, “The real price tag is a moving target. Some estimates put the cost at over a trillion dollars. Many billions in Medicare, discretionary spending and saving from Social Security were double- counted in gimmickry to try to keep the publicly announced cost under a trillion dollars. The law probably is unconstitutional because of its unprecedented requirement that Americans purchase a service—health insurance. As of September 20 states had filed suits declaring ObamaCare unconstitutional. ObamaCare also places personal medical decisions in the hands of bureaucrats and is likely to lead to rationing of care options.

Only government qualified health plans (QHPs) may sell coverage through a federal exchange. QHPs must be state-licensed and certified by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) new office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight after meeting a bevy of new federal and state requirements, points out Dr. Scott W. Atlas, a professor at Stanford University Medical Center and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Mandates will be “embedded in government defined ‘minimal essential coverage’ and will be inflicted on private insurers and consumers...eliminating low-cost plans that Americans are increasingly opting to buy from private insurers,” he said in an op ed article in The Washington Times. In spite of furthering the dependence on government insurance “with its mandates, insurance exchanges, definitions of essential coverage and price-fixing, costs still will escalate,” wrote Dr. Atlas. Obamacare forbids reasonable insurance pricing for high-risk consumers and imposes a host of new coverage mandates to make insurance more costly.